When viewed as a whole, March of 1977 saw one of the most climactic Daytona events of all time.

This wasn't some kind of lame-duck race, either—Baker competing against a bunch of clumsy regional guys—he trounced some big-name riders in March of 1977. Who finished second? Kenny Roberts. Third? Japanese Yamaha Factory rider Takazuma Katayama. Fourth was the late Gregg Hansford, and fifth was hard-man Gene Romero.

American Steve Baker won the 1977 Daytona 2 x 100. That's not a typo—the '77 race was to be run in two 100-mile legs and Baker won it, by a wide margin. This wasn't some kind of lame-duck race, either—Baker competing against a bunch of clumsy regional guys—he trounced some big-name riders in March of 1977. Who finished second? Kenny Roberts. Third? Japanese Yamaha Factory rider Takazuma Katayama. Fourth was the late Gregg Hansford, and fifth was hard-man Gene Romero.

Baker slammed the pole as well with a qualifying speed of 111 miles an hour.

What was the reason that the 1977 Daytona 200 was run in two legs? Tire wear. The period TZ700s and the like were the first machines to require a tire change in the 200 and, while factory teams who had spare wheels and crew to do it could swap a rear wheel fairly quickly, the same was not true for the privateer racers—some of whom didn't even have spare wheels. Hence, the two legs and "Olympic-style" aggregate scoring of each leg with an hour break in between. Only it rained after the first leg and the second leg was canceled. Baker won the race by almost thirty seconds over Roberts.

The 36th annual Daytona 200 wasn't the only show on the card that year, or that people should remember fondly. Steve Baker continued his winning ways in the 250 race, but he inherited the lead when Roberts' TZ250's suspension failed. Future four-time world champion Eddie Lawson won the novice 250 race in 1977, scoring an impressive win on his birthday.

Cook Neilson won the Superbike race in 1977 by over thirty seconds as well. Riding the fabled "California Hot Rod" a machine cemented in motorcycle lore a long time ago, Neilson's Desmo Ducati poured on the power and actually rode away from the Yoshimura Suzuki of Wes Cooley. Behind wordsmith-turned racer Neilson's straight and tight Ducati were bunches of wobbling Japanese and German bikes, many of them with overwrought suspension, causing their riders to hang on for dear life. The late Dave Emde finished second in what was his first-ever Superbike race, this on a Kawasaki 1000.

The machine ridden by Neilson was tuned by then Cycle magazine editor Phil Schilling. In the months after Daytona, Schilling and Neilson would write in Cycle about all of the vast and, shall we say, "creative" tuning employed by the pair on that narrow Italian bike.

With his two wins (250 and Daytona 200), Baker went home with nearly $20,000—in 1977 dollars, mind you.